Religious Language

ANALOGY AND SYMBOL: 

• Via Negativa- The truth of God is discovered when talking negatively about him. To find out what God is like we must first find out what God is NOT like. 
• Univocal Language- Possible to understand God's love as we understand human love. David Hume- This is anthropomorphism. 
• Equivocal Language- Some wordused with a totally different meaning. HOWEVER- makes it difficult/impossible to understand God. 
• Analogical Language- Aquinas. Seeks to allow people to speak meaningfully about a transcendent God. 
• Analogy of attribution- God is the cause of all good things in humans. God's attributes are simply a higher level than our own. 
• Analogy of proportionality- All good qualities belong to God. We cannot fully understand God. 
• Symbolic Language- Something identifies and participates in the meaning of that concept. Non-Cognitive approach. Paul Tillich- Positive way of expressing the nature of God in terms of 'the ground of our being'. "The language of faith is the language of symbols". HOWEVER- original meaning could be lost, outdated, and focuses on worship.

VERIFICATION AND FALSIFICATION DEBATES: 

• …